Phase 1

At long last I’ve got somewhere where I can eat outside and enjoy good times with friends.

I should have done it ages ago. It’s not ideal because the area has been graded with a slight fall away from the house in preparation for when I eventually go ahead with my planned extension, so two legs of the table have had to be propped up to make it level. But it’ll be fine. I have a brand new barbecue that’s been standing unused in my ‘atelier’ for over two years so at last I can get around to thinking about using it for the first time. It’s much too hot for the time being as with daytime temperatures of over 40 degrees C, much too much heat still rises from the white stones in the evening for it to be comfortable. But the hot snap should end soon and then it will be time.

I’ve also got big plans for the back of the house but I’ll come back to those later when I’ve got more to show. For the time being I’ve just placed a small round table that Victor gave me just after I arrived in France in the most shady corner of the part of my garden behind my house which gets less sun and doesn’t therefore get too hot, especially in the evening. I’m using it with the two spare chairs that came with the new table that I’ve got out front as I don’t think I’ll need eight chairs around that very often. I’ve finished it off for now with a three metre square parasol giving me another area that I’ll be able to use for eating outside at, especially in the evening.

That’s it for now. As mentioned above, I’ve got some much bigger ideas for the area at the back of my house to make it a lot more usable instead of it being just a patch of sloping grass that’s full of weeds. I’ve already got things moving with them so should have some results to show quite soon with the whole project being finished hopefully over the coming few weeks, bearing in mind that even after Covid, most enterprises in France have now closed down for August so anything that’s ordered, especially that requires fabrication, won’t be delivered until some time after they get back.